Colorado’s Top Lawyer Is Breaking the Law He Swore to Uphold

By Hans A. von Spakovsky | Commentary, Fox News

Mesa County sheriff removes two deputies from drug task force over information sharing with ICE.

By suing Mesa County Deputy Sheriff Alexander Zwink for sharing information about an illegal alien with federal authorities, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is blatantly violating federal law.

The Justice Department has already filed a lawsuit to go after the state law he was enforcing, which violates a specific provision of federal immigration law and the U.S. Constitution.

Not only should that state law be declared null and void by a federal court, but the two Colorado deputies and their supervisors who’ve been disciplined for this should be immediately reinstated and commended for their work.

All of this arises out of Zwink’s cooperation with federal immigration agents as part of a drug task force. Zwink pulled over a Brazilian college student in a traffic stop.

Shortly thereafter, she was arrested and detained by federal authorities because Zwink had “shared her location and a description of her and her vehicle in a group chat that included ICE agents.” An “internal investigation” showed that another deputy sheriff who was involved in the task force had also – horror of horrors – “shared immigration information with federal agents.”

OMG! What a crime! What a dastardly deed! Local law enforcement cooperating and sharing information about illegal aliens with the federal authorities responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws!

The two deputies have been removed from the task force by Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell and disciplined along with two supervisors, and a third supervisor who “received counseling” for these unimagined “crimes.”

All of this is the result of a Colorado state law signed by pro-illegal immigration Gov. Jared Polls that prohibits all government officials in Colorado, including law enforcement agents, from sharing any information about any aliens with federal immigration authorities.

The problem with that state law – among many others, including its effect on public safety – is that it directly violates federal law. 8 U.S.C. § 1373 specifically prohibits state and local governments from in any way restricting “any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from,” the Department of Homeland Security, “information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.” Moreover, this federal statute also specifies that states cannot prohibit or restrict “exchanging such information with any other Federal, State, or local government entity.”

This is not a complicated federal law that is hard to understand. States like Colorado cannot prevent deputy sheriffs like Alexander Zwink from doing exactly what he did: share information with federal authorities about an alien.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT FOX NEWS

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.